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Cha sui and cha sui bao

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

This has got to be the fastest challenge I have ever finished and it seems the latest I have posted lol. I finished the challenge the first week of the month but forgot to write the post.It seems I need a disastrous challenge to motivate me to post early

When the challenge was announced I was really excited to give it a try, the flavors seemed really interesting and being someone who never tried dim sum this was an opportunity I was looking forward to.

The char sui (the chicken part) didn’t disappoint, it was full of flavor and a new refreshing change from regular chicken. The cha sui bao (the buns stuffed with chopped chicken and other ingredients)on the other hand didn’t receive rave reviews from my husband, the kids enjoyed it though. As for me I think I liked the chicken alone as opposed to the char sui bao.

Cut the chicken into 4 pieces. By cutting the chicken in to smaller pieces to marinate you will end up with more flavoursome char sui. If you want to leave the chicken in one piece you can do this as well. Place in container that you will be marinating them in.

Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl and mix well to combine. I placed my maltose in the microwave for a few seconds to make it easier to work with. Maltose is quite a solid hard sticky substance. (I used honey instead of maltose)

Cover well with ⅔ of the marinade mixture. Marinate for a minimum of 4 hours, Iit would be best if left to marinate overnight. Place the reserved ⅓ portion of the marinade covered in the fridge. You will use this as a paste when cooking the pork.

Cooking Method
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Pre-heat oven to moderate 180˚C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Cover a baking tray with foil or baking paper. Place on top of this a rack on which to cook the chicken.

Place chicken in a hot frying pan or wok. Sear it quickly so it is well browned

Remove from pan/wok and place chicken on the rack and place in oven.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes, basting and turning until cooked through.

Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for approximately 10 minutes. The dough should be smooth and slightly elastic.

Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave to rise until it is double in size. This will take from 1 – 2 hours depending on weather conditions.

Once dough has doubled in size knock back and divide in to 12 portions and shape in to round balls

Use a rolling pin to roll out to approximately 5cm (2 inches) in diameter. Then pick the piece of dough up and gently pull the edges to enlarge to about 8cm (3 inches) in diameter.

Place a good sized tablespoon of filling on the dough circle. Then gather the edges and seal your bun.

Place the bun seal side down on your baking tray(or as I did in a muffin tin). Continue with rest of dough.

Once all buns are complete brush surface with egg wash.

Place in a preheated oven of 200º C/392º F for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Try not to over fill your buns or they may burst while baking

Storage & Freezing Instructions/Tips:

The baked char sui bao freezes very well. All you need to do is take them out of the freezer and place in the over to warm. The steamed ones should freeze okay as well. To warm them place in microwave for about 30 seconds until warm and defrosted.

I am so, so, so impressed with this! I love this dish but have only ever eaten it in restaurants…it would never have crossed my mind to make it at home. It looks amazing and I also love it sliced into soup with noodles and a sprinkle of chili sauce. Will proably have to wait now until after Christmas to make it..but make it I most definitely will! Did I say I was so impressed?!

That was super clever that you made the bao in a muffin tin! I will have to remember that for next time. Your meat looks absolutely, mouthwateringly delicious, and the buns look great! Sorry you didn’t like the buns as much, but you did an amazing job on the entire challenge.

I’ve never heard of either dish but,boy, I’m sure glad I have now! They lok delicious and the ability to freeze the baked char sui bao make them so much more accessible for those of us in smaller households.

The char sui is the chicken, the char sui bao is the chicken in the bun (they are also called dim sum)and I served them straight from the oven.
you can steam them instead of baking them
The suggestions for freezing and heating are from the host of this month’s challenge.

This reminds me of something we made a while back…I think the manapua. We didn’t make the bread from scratch though. I’m still not baking bread – especially at this crazy time of year. I need all the patience I can muster just to get through a regular day’s to do list. I have absolutely no patience left for bread. 😉

Same here… the colour of that chicken is AMAZING… reminds me of when I made tandoori chicken, but I bet the flavours on that are way better! Can’t wait to try it out! If you make a whole roasted chicken with that, let us know how you went! 😀

Great job! A shame the buns didn’t go down so well, but everything looks wondeful, especially the chicken. I’ve been thinking I’d like to try the marinade with chicken, and it’s good to know you can freeze the buns as well. They’d make a good, quick lunch or snack.

As per usual these are beautiful photos! I swear you could take photos of a car tyre and make it look delicious! Not that this is any reflection on this food, I take my hat off to you for trying something new so often. This would be way out of my comfort zone and you have done an amazing job!

Great photos and presentation! I’ve eaten the bao, both steamed and baked, in Chinese restaurants and always prefer the steamed ones. Maybe that’s why you and your husband enjoyed them less – because they are, as I refer to them, The Lesser Bao 🙂 It would be interesting to see whether you agree. PS – thanks for stopping by my blog